Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Looking for NC's Civil War: Zebulon Baird Vance Monument


There are many monuments to Zebulon Baird Vance, North Carolina's War-time governor. The large one in Pack Square (which our friends in the 26th NCT Reactivated are raising funds to restore); a more modest one in Charlotte, where Vance lived after the war; the nice one on the grounds of the state-capital in Raleigh; and in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. But the one we are going to discuss briefly today is very small, and up until about a month ago, I did not know it even existed.

Back in August, I was speaking and signing books at the Zebulon Baird Vance Birthplace in Buncombe County. During a down time, I was wandering the grounds of the site, camera in hand, when I stumbled across this little marker at the foot of a flag pole. It simply reads

Zebulon Baird Vance
1830-1894
Colonel 26th Regiment, C.S.A.
N.C. Governor, U.S. Senator
Asheville Chapter, U.D.C.
Fannie Patton Chapter, U.D.C.
May 2, 1969.

 

I took this image in August 2012

1 comment:

Kevin Ellis said...

Michael,

Thanks for the mention of Preservation Fund.
As weird as Asheville can be, the obelisk in Pack Square is truly a touchstone for those historically inclined.

Besides the 26thNC, old Zeb had a lot of ties with the 64th.

He was buried how many times and ended up where?

Regards,